“That question is well above my pay grade.” In one form or another, this was how Seattle Police Department East Precinct Capt. Jim Britt, joined by his deputy captain and the SPD’s LGBTQ liaison Haden Barton, among others, responded to most of the concerns brought up by community members during January’s SPD LGBTQ Advisory Council meeting.
Without the SPD’s chief and deputy chiefs present — and able to directly address the sensitive, ongoing political issues on people’s minds, including current ICE activity and investigations into police aggression at the Mayday USA event in Cal Anderson Park — the overall tone of the night among attendees was disappointment and further apprehension.
Billy Graham retreat
The meeting started with a conversation surrounding an article published by Erin Barnett in PubliCola on Dec. 15 about a department-wide email inviting officers to attend this year’s Billy Graham National Law Enforcement Ministry event, led by Graham’s son Franklin, who is an avid supporter of Trump and opposes LGBTQIA+ rights. The email was sent by Sgt. Christopher Gregorio, who had previously received a 20-day suspension for shooting Terry Carver, a 57-year-old Black man, in 2020.
Capt. Britt responded that he hadn’t come across the email, but that SPD regularly passes along event information, including ones that are religiously affiliated, for example, a local Catholic Church that reached out concerning a “blue mass” event. Britt said he had confidence that the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) would notice if there was a conflict of interest, and that although he doesn’t always see eye to eye with Barnett’s perspective, he felt “she has incredible journalist integrity.”
Minneapolis and ICE
Concerns around ICE operations were the primary focus of attendees during the meeting. Several people asked questions about whether the SPD had any protocol for responding to ICE. Capt. Britt and others deferred most questions to Chief Barnes, who is scheduled to attend next month’s meeting; however, the captain did give a few responses. Of the ICE activity in Minneapolis, including Renee Nicole Good’s death, he said that he and “the police officers that work for me had a problem with it.”
Capt. Britt also explained that a “blue on blue” situation was his major concern for the department, because the SPD does not communicate with ICE and other federal law enforcement about its operations, and that legislation passed under Mayor Harrell, laying out further noncooperation between the SPD and ICE, was awaiting approval by the department.
But the circumstances still made the captain nervous. According to him, ICE’s practices of being hard to identify — by using unmarked vehicles and masks — left the possibility of not knowing how to respond. “We roll into [the situation] like it’s not ICE and we’re wrong,” he said. “Or worse, we roll in like it is ICE and we’re wrong.” He pointed out that SPD officers have gone through “deconfliction” training that covers what to do when encountering other forms of law enforcement.
When asked whether the SPD could do anything to prevent ICE from performing its operations, including alleged illegal practices, such as entering private homes without a warrant, the captain said, “It would be unlawful to stop federal officials in their duties.”
The lack of satisfaction with the answers given led attendees to put forward a motion to invite Mayor Katie Wilson to the next meeting.
“Guns blazing”
Body cam video from the Seattle Office of the Inspector General for Public Safety (OIG) investigation was released, showing SPD officers discussing their strategy before violently assaulting and arresting 23 Queer counterprotesters during the Mayday event on May 24 last year. The officers in the video are shown plotting their move: “We are past talking to people, we’re here to fuck people up now.”
The SGN asked Capt. Britt and the other SPD officers if they had any comments to make, to which the captain said they cannot comment on an ongoing OIG investigation. Instead, he gave his philosophy on why he tells officers they shouldn’t swear in those kind of tense situations: “You will not only seem more professional, you will be more in control of your emotional faculties.” Another attendee brought up that it wasn’t the officers’ swearing that upset people but rather the openly malicious intent to do harm against people.
The Seattle LGBTQ Commission put out a statement about the investigation’s findings after the meeting, “demanding accountability and immediate action from Seattle City Council and the mayor, including officer removal, independent public review, and full transparency. Minimal discipline is not justice. Silence is not neutrality. Our community has every right to be angry.”
Mario Teulilo of the Seattle Community Police Commission (CPC) ended the night’s conversation by sharing the 2018 story of his cousin, who was put on the ground by SPD officers and shot in the back of the head. He explained that although the officer who killed his cousin was no longer part of the SPD, he has since joined the Spokane Police Department, known for being one of the worst in the country in terms of police violence. Capt. Britt expressed his condolences, apologizing that had happened. Teulilo expressed appreciation for his response: “Thank you for showing your humanity,” he said, pointing out that the same story — told a week earlier at a CPC meeting — was received less sympathetically: “I’m not familiar with that case,” one of the chiefs said then.
Capt. Britt gave final words, asking that community hold the department to a higher standard: “We need to do better. Hold us to better,” he said.
The next SPD LGBTQ Advisory Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 11 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the 12th Ave. Arts Building, 1620 12th Ave., Seattle, in the second-floor conference room.
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